*HoT Online vs. Browsers

After the recent updates to the game, the web version of HoT was noticeably affected when I did a run-through on Firefox. After a few plays, I wondered if the effects would also show up on other browsers. To test my theory, I installed the following: Google Chrome v27.0, Opera Win32 v12.15 and Safari v5.1.7, all of these are the supposed latest versions supported by my OS, WindowsXP Home (32-bit) sp2. I’ll include the results of my current browsers, Firefox v22.0 and IE v8.0; each score is on a 1–5 scale, with 5 being the best.

Ratings:
Load time – how long it takes the browser to load the game
Frame rate – the speed that the game runs
Response – how well the browser accepts mouse clicks
Duration until failure – how long it took for the game to stop responding and freeze (the current problem)
Effects handling – how well the special effects performed (Rep-Up fanfare, confetti particles, animations etc…)

– All browsers performed reasonably until the player begins to add more rooms, notably the double rooms, to the house.

– Firefox and Chrome seem to be the best browsers to handle the effects and respond to mouse clicks well over the others.

– Of all the usable browsers, Chrome performed closest to Build 7.01.13 in terms of framerate, effects handling and responsiveness BUT once the house was added onto, the game suffered quickly and froze soon after.

– Of all the usable browsers, Firefox lasted the longest before the effects handling and size of the house brought it to a halt.

– Of all the usable browsers, Opera performed the worst in all categories.

The above results were for me running on an older board and chip, again with WindowsXP Home 32-bit. Newer OS and hardware results likely will be better or at least different, but I wanted to post this as food for thought, considering the wide range of browsers and computers around and whatnot. Anyone else with similar experiences and tests, go for it! How did you do?

Many thanks for the browser research! Very interesting, curious if others have noticed major differences. I think the IE you need win7 and up for, will support html5 canvas. It’s weird how you can’t upgrade to that on winXP.

I’ve tested on Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and mobile versions of each, and IE. I haven’t noticed any big differences, though Firefox and Chrome seem to handle it slightly better than the rest.

I’m wondering too if my computer is to blame, but at the same time, I don’t have these issues on 7.01.13 >_> The only thing I can’t be current with is IE (no big loss for me, I’m no fan of Microsoft), everything else runs just fine…

I kannt say I’ve had any issues myself, but I’ve only played HoT online version on my Firefox 22.0 with, if anything an excess, of addons(including a plugin which shows when firefox is overusing system memory which leads to a lot of issues on firefox like lag, glitches on online games, etc) and Midori(a very light weight browser on Ubuntu, basically only just the web ui and not much else).

If you don’t like Windooze 7 then stay away from 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 lol its like if Vista and 98 had a child made of pure nightmare fuel(companies are even offering free downgrades to professional versions of 8 to 7) and Linux is free with many distros(different versions of filesystem builds) with lightweight builds such as Slackware( http://www.slackware.com/ ) Crunchbang( http://crunchbang.org/ ) Ubuntu(using Kubuntu myself; http://www.ubuntu.com/ ) My favorite Gentoo( http://www.gentoo.org/ ) and others( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution ) most of which are free(with exceptions for certain parts of ones like Redhat, but there are always ways around that) and most of which, such as Ubuntu, are installable alongside Windows, replace Windows, or just to try out w/o install(for someone familiar with Windows, Gnome might be useful (and a helpful link http://www.howtogeek.com/113204/make-gnome-shell-your-own-10-gnome-shell-extensions-to-install/ ) as the desktop layout is similar, so is the KDE desktop enviorment, but I still prefer vinalla Ubuntu desktop with Gnome added in myself) be sure to read through the Ubuntu wiki carefully tho(because for updating and upgrading it has to be sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade respecfully and sudo apt-get clean and apt-get remove(and autoremove for non speific files) is useful and rm -r is useful for removing folder directories(like for example testfolder1 would be
cd ~/Desktop/
sudo rm -r testfolder1
and the folder is gone, along with its entire contents, and clamtk is useful for checking for any possible viruses in the windows compatiliby binary layer(Wine get it from the site, the software center version is outdated) which it may get due to the fact its basically a windows emulator no matter what the devs say(in function at least, it is better then an actual emulator tho) and wall of text ftw XD

IE started sluggish, then as the game progressed it acted like I was trying to drive a car from a standstill in 5th gear… It muddled through the game until the 4th double room was built, then stopped playing. The game’s front-end performance (what I could see) froze after double room #2 was built, but the back-end performance (the game actually running) seemed unaffected and it transitioned to the next day as normal. Once a Rep-Up occurred, it reset the game screen and I was somewhat able to play normally. The length of time I was able to play was similar to Firefox, but IE started having issues earlier in the session, which is why I rated it lower. Also, the click-response was poor from the get-go; I often had to hold down the mouse button to get it to do anything.

lol yeah IE is one of the worst browsers I’ve seen(have seen some custom coded ones that were somehow worse tho)but the only issues I’ve had are just slow loading of the game with multiple processes running(and this is less of an issue n my 2.67 GHz processer on this laptop) which is to be expected, even left it running for 2 days(was also using this laptop for classes) and it ran fine, maybe its something to do with Windows? Or Ubuntu just lacks whatever causes the issue, will test it out on Fedora, Slackware, and maybe Crashbang, see what happens.

I’ll need to do a bigger elaboration on this when I get the time <I will do it tomorrow>.

Internet Explorer 11.0.9600 <x64, Win8.1> has ran rather well and there wasn’t really any performance drops. if anything, the performance increased after the game was going on.

Waterfox 24.0 also was performing extremely well on my system.

Although it could honestly be my build and my laptop, as they are not some run down machines or college machines some web gamers use, I would like to point out that Waterfox does tend to act better memory-wise, and IE 11 does- believe it or not, improve a considerable amount over 10.

Double Edit:

in Ubuntu 13.10 x64, I found it to run a bit more.. unstable. The speed wasn’t really dampened though which I find rather odd.

Tested on Chromium and Firefox <Both are recently updated, but I’ll need to log onto my Ubuntu partition to see exactly what versions they are.

Triple Edit: <damn how many of these will I have>

IE, in my opinion has traveled a long way since IE6 and 7. It runs very smooth on my PC, and is still my main browser <although I do find myself using Waterfox just as much, as I LOVE the extensions.>

so, depending on your system IE can be as fast as Chrome and Firefox/Waterfox are. being a ‘crap browser’ is a bold statement when its an opinion trying to be stated like a ‘fact’

Lastly, Windows 8 is a matter of preference. Windows 8 is not like the ‘next vista’. Windows 8 vastly improves on Windows 7, with people whining about the damn Metro interface. Windows 8.1 has gotten praise and is called the ‘much needed update to 8’. Also, there IS no Windows 8.2 <yet>

In fact, Windows 8 is more like 7 than 7 is to Vista. <Desktop Mode, hello people>

If you need to save money, I do advise many to try out Ubuntu, as it is a very flexible and interesting OS- not only that it is free.

While Internet Explorer may have improved over the years from its Swiss cheese-like security and sinuous integration in the Windows OS, I still consider it a maddening and monopolizing browser in regards to non-internet usage on some computers.

I did not care for its performance with HoT over the others I tested and still feel underwhelmed with its general functionality. Being required to use it at work, I’m less concerned with its security flaws, as I am not responsible for any devastation it may allow in the OS environment. I just don’t care to use it at home.

I more than encourage my findings to be taken with a grain of salt, if not the entire shaker, and do not claim to be any kind of computer authority outside of a possibly above-average user.

I can not speak as to the security of browsers considering I use a damn good antivirus thats never let anything go through, let alone knowing which sites aren’t exactly the most secure anyways. As for performance, IE is performing as great as any of the other browsers I tried.

And of course its a monopolizing browser on non-internet usage peers, as they don’t go out and explore the other browsers. I see that Chrome and Firefox is booming just as much as IE, so I don’t want to hear about that. Don’t forget that some OS’s aren’t even compatible with IE, eg: Ubuntu. And Mobile Environments are included in this. only Windows Phone has IE, and I see the workings of Chrome and Firefox will shortly make their way there <I havent checked in the last couple of months so they could be on there already.>

You are definitely an above average user if you know more than just one or two browsers, and are testing it on more than just one computer. A user who usually knows what the heck they’re doing is an above average user in my book.

Also, food for thought (at least my food anyways) :…I love salt, so of course you’ll see me- I cant say argue, but conflict in a way(?) with this. Its just not too long ago I was on the spectrum of users that disliked <see: hate> IE. Once IE 9 came about, it worked better than v8. Then I got Windows 8. IE worked even better. Then I upgraded my PC. IE was comparing with my favorite browser: Waterfox.

I actually care a little on what other users think. So if I seem…bashing a bit, I do apologize. I just wish users would stop making their thoughts into what sounds like fact and instead you could just say ‘IE works like crap…for me =u=’